Kaleidoscope
by G.Mariee
Summary: There are a few people capable of traveling from another universe to theirs, with knowledge of their past and future. They are viewed as a breed of their own, to be respected and guided. A tool. But what if they vaguely recognized that universe, but didn't remember it? What if they can't even handle living there? Self-Insertish
1. Chapter 1

She hardly remembered how she came to be drowning in the lake. When she tried, she'd recall bits and pieces- a kaleidoscope of ideas which might or might not have been true, but for the most part, all she remembered was the vanilla sky.

It was late September, and the leaves of the trees alongside the road were being swiftly blown along with the fall wind. There was nothing particular about that day which would have stood out to Rory in any way, though, it was a typical Monday.

Her sister had just picked her up from school, and they drove at an appropriate speed level, blaring music on the radio which neither of the girls paid attention to, given the fact that they were too preoccupied screaming at each other over the noise, talking about their day without a thought of lowering the music's volume. During times like those, the only one of the two with half a mind where it should be was always her sister due to obvious road safety reasons.

Rory was always too deep in her reverie to notice anything unless it came right in front of her, like that dog which ran into the middle of the bridge they crossed every day.

Instinctively, she screamed. She screamed a mix of unintelligible sentences as her sister gave the steering wheel a sharp turn towards the edge of the bridge.

At the moment the movements in the car were violent. She later did not remember just how many times she hit her head against the seats and windows, or how dangerously her neck jerked one way and the other as their car rolled off course and over the edge of the bridge. Everything went dark around her before they crashed into the water. Somehow she still felt awake, though.

Rory vaguely recognized the feeling of water creeping up her legs, and minor leaks on her shoulder. She knew it was her sister's hands desperately prying her seatbelt open and dragging her someplace under water. Sometimes she felt shards of glass slither across her arms or cheeks, but eventually, her sister's grasp slowly faded.

She lost consciousness as she sunk alone, but still her involuntary movements created minor ripples in the deep lake which did not go unnoticed in the surface.

There was an obvious wave of change in the water which Rory was beyond paying mind to, then a silhouette came to view of her not too later. She was dragged up.

Slowly, she began to remember again. Only bits and pieces as she felt three puffs of air fill her lungs. With a jolt, her eyes snapped open and before they adjusted to their surroundings, Rory picked herself up and clumsily crawled as close to the lake's edge as she could before sensing a pair of arms dragging her back again. That was when she wailed.

Her sister, she was all she could remember. She had been with her sister before, and did not feel her presence anymore, it was her only focus.

She did not notice the blades of grass she sat on, which should not have been there before. Or the vanilla sky, which had turned bright blue anew. She missed the road, replaced by a dusty path on which only stood one tall dark figure of a man she couldn't quite make out at the moment. She didn't make sense of anything until she felt herself be forcefully shaken and turned to face a pair of pale grey eyes, urging her to repeat herself.

There was impatience in the man's grasp on her arms and his words where sharply spoken, but not understood for a second. They were foreign, not only overlooked by her hysteria. All Rory could think to do was gesture and plead until she felt herself released and soon after her entire body was against the blades of grass. Through her disorientation, all she could hear was a splash of water and all she could see was what once had been the dark silhouette approaching her, talking more of their foreign language, in slurred words.

He was talking to her, but she couldn't focus long enough to even recognize his features. By the end of her recently recovered consciousness, though, she somehow understood:

"There isn't anything in the bottom of that lake."

* * *

**A/N: **I very much dislike myself for writing such a bad thingy. I feel a lot of confusion on this drabble ( drabble because it doesn't even reach 1k God) so if anyone would like to express doubts, feel free. To be honest, I'm on some allergy medication which has me rather dizzy at the moment so perhaps I wrote unintelligible things and didn't even notice.

But yeah, a few points:

Rory I believe is an American male name, but I had an Italian friend whose girlfriend was named Rory and I don't know, the name stuck with me.

It is self insert-ish in the sense that an OC does go from one dimension (or world) to another, but at the same time it's not because it's not me, you feel? She's literally just a character meant for this purpose.

I'm not sure if this will be a continued story or just an introduction to how I saw a self insert beginning, but I do know I have a bunch of theories about self inserts which I meant to share, but didn't find how. _Anyway_.

Any questions, feel free to ask. Oh! And I got prompts guys so I'll spread the love if you'd like~


	2. Chapter 2

_"Can she hear me?" _

_The words were slurred, unintelligible. They crossed the back of her consciousness with hardly any acknowledgement, but there was something about them: their tone, the minor quiver as they were spoken, which vaguely captured her attention. She recognized the voice which had spoken them from somewhere. There was a slight comfort in the very sound of it, though that was a feeling she didn't notice at the moment._

_"I like to think so." Came another set of words she had trouble hearing, as if she was underwater and they were speaking above the surface. These she did not recognize, but paid if only partial mind to, "She's still there, you know; somewhere. It's still her."_

_ She was too far in her own mind to put too much focus to the exchange. She could argue that she did understand what had been said, but the thought of making anything of it didn't cross her._

_ It was an odd state she was in, awake but not conscious. She was aware of her existence, yet she did not produce a coherent thought. She couldn't see a thing, but still felt something around her spinning. She had actually no idea where she was or what she was doing. She felt a number of sensations overwhelm her all at once while simultaneously feeling nothing, and in that way, one could argue she was both alive and nothing of the sort._

_"I hope so." She hardly understood the last words spoken as they were slowly overshadowed by another sound which stood out, and both soothed and confused her. A constant beeping. _

_ The fact that she recognized what it was should have stood out to the girl, but it did not. Though it felt out of place, the rhythm was her only focus. Low, and even._

_ For the longest time, it went interrupted. Slow, steady, and lowering. _

_It began to go deeper and fading until she could barely make out the pattern anymore. Then she heard another set begin to overlap. The same beeping, one echoing the other. She could note one to be much louder, closer._

_Beep,_

_Beep,_

_Beep,_

_Beep_

_ That then puzzled her, and though the noise didn't cause her head to ache, she felt it ought to. But that was a thought she actually understood, and it was then she felt herself being reeled back to some state of awareness. _

_ Her body felt anchored, heavy once again, lying over a soft surface. Her mind was still clouded, but she could make sense of the feeling, like waking from a nap she didn't know she'd taken. The noise was somewhere near her, almost urging her to find it. It was then she sensed it, the bright and warm light._

The Jane Doe's eyes fluttered open and as her head lulled to the side, she flinched, suddenly aware of the biting pain all over her body. Slowly, she positioned her arms with intention to adjust herself into a sitting position, but better reason decided against any movement, and she let her arms go limp. She blinked though, encouraging her vision to focus enough to scan her surroundings, curious to know where she was.

The first thing she was faced with was a heart rate monitor, and source of the incessant beeping. Putting two and two together, she assumed she was in a hospital bed. But as the thought settled into her, her eyebrows narrowed.

Her eyes trailed the cord connected to the box which seemed to end with her. The fact alarmed her, given that she had no memory of what could have led her to hospitalization. Ignoring her body's scream in protest, she sat up. The weight in her head felt ridiculously heavy. It went hand in hand with dizziness, which made her sway only for a few moments as she grew accustomed to the position.

She scanned the room, which contained single plant in a far off corner, and a glass window viewing the daylight. Or, at least, as far as she could tell. The bed next to her was empty and perfectly made, which suggested she was unaccompanied. But the room was unrecognizable to her, and as someone who had spent most her childhood in hospital rooms, that didn't happen often.

She didn't think of much else except calling out to her mother, who did not reply. After three and four times, she didn't try anyone else, aware that they'd be at school or work. And accepting the fact that she was alone, she lay back down with a groan.

For what felt like hours but were probably a handful of minutes, she racked her mind trying to find any memory of what had brought her there, but always came up short. She wasn't about to believe it was just another asthma attack, since those didn't come with partial memory loss and pain wasn't something she was used to.

The word accident crossed her mind, but before she could ponder the idea, her door opened making way for a pinkette with a clipboard. Rory found the fact to be strange, given the fact that society wasn't quite liberal enough for medics with colorful hair just yet, but dismissed the thought, seeing as though she had no particular problem with the fact.

When green eyes met brown, there was a small exclamation of "Oh!" before the rather young nurse paced back towards the doorframe and began speaking unintelligible words in a language further than Rory understood. The brunette inched her head up with the intention of making better sense of the nurse's behavior, but felt a wave of tiredness let it fall back over her pillow.

"Lady Tsunade, she's awake!" Sakura informed her mentor, who stood at the door of another room further down the hall.

The announcement mildly surprised the older woman, which was written across her face as she turned to her student with a raised brow, "Well I'll be damned, that was quick." She replied, "How is she?"

Sakura shook her head, "I didn't check her in case you wanted to."

The head of the hospital nodded and paced past her and into the room where she was met with a pale face with very troubled expression. The woman didn't think of much else to say except, "Gai was right. She doesn't look from around here."

Rory cocked her head in befuddlement as she saw teacher and student exchange words which sounded complete gibberish to her. She didn't know what hospital she was in, but she knew something so foreign wasn't supposed to be its main language.

And perhaps it wasn't. She didn't know how the employees went about with each other, but she assumed they must understand her. Contrary wise, they wouldn't understand the majority of the population in the country and go bankrupt.

When she saw the older woman's honey brown eyes land on her, she took the opportunity to clear her throat, which made her cough, and timidly say, "Excuse me."

"That was quite a scare you gave us." Tsunade smiled at her patient, who still seemed extremely disoriented.

Rory shook her head, growing frustrated. Either she wasn't comprehending the woman's speech pattern or there really was a language barrier between them, "Come again?"

The blonde noted the young lady's lips quirk and mumble something, but she'd been informed of her when she'd been found a few hours prior and apparently, she spoke unintelligibly- for which reason she ignored her, and tried addressing her slowly, "My name is Tsunade; I'll be your doctor for the next set of days. Perhaps you don't recall how you got here, given the fact that you were unconscious, but you were found in one of the lakes in the training grounds and were largely bruised, so you'll need to explain the source of those to us, if you can, and walk us through your medical history, which we can't seem to find. Also, if there is anyone you'd like to contact and inform of your current state, you can notify one of the nurses and we'll be sure to send out a notice."

The girl's eyebrows rose as she sighed in exasperation, making no attempt of replying. Taking note, Sakura stepped up to her mentor and murmured at her, "Can she understand us?"

Tsunade shook her head, "It appears not. Gai explained that when they found her, nothing she said made any sense, but that she was in a state of hysteria so I assumed that might have been the reason for it. Apparently there's something else causing the communication issue, though."

"Do we know why she was hysterical?"

The woman shrugged slightly, observing as the girl awkwardly drifted her gaze elsewhere for the time being, "She kept trying to return to the lake as if something was still down there, but Neji surveyed the entire area and didn't see a thing."

Sakura felt a mild wave of further curiosity, though she kept from asking too much and frustrating her mentor. She decided to address basic questions "Do we know anything else about her?"

"Hardly." Replied Tsunade as she closed the distance between herself and the patient's bedside, "Gai suggested she was foreign, which seems plausible enough given her physical traits."

The fact was understandable. Sakura saw that the girl wasn't a show-stopper, but one glance was enough to see that something about her wasn't common. It was a mix of her eyes, skin tone and long golden brown waves. None of which were seen often around the village.

"For now what we need to focus on is what caused her injuries." Tsunade added, to which Sakura replied with a senseless nod behind the woman's point of view.

"I can't understand what you're saying." Rory mumbled in singsong, more to herself than anyone else.

The doctor smiled and addressed her with a warm voice, "I know you probably don't understand what I'm saying."

The patient's eyebrows knit together as she helplessly struggled to find any speech pattern to make sense of, "What are you talking about?"

Tsunade nodded, her glance drifting elsewhere as her mind searched for ideas to translate herself. She could think to ask Ino or even her father for aid; using the mind-transfer technique to have a general look around and get an overall sense of where the young lady stood, but it could result disastrous if the she felt threatened and retaliated, which was still a possibility. Perhaps it was a risk to take, but she needed to think it over to be sure.

Rory stuttered senselessly for a moment before repeating herself, unable to think of another thing to say, and settled on trying to recapture the doctor's attention, "I can't understand what you're saying."

Her words came slow and frustrated, but she felt rather desperate for communication. Even more so, when she had such little information concerning the happening. The doctor's response, though, sent a wave of interest through her. She cocked her head, almost as if her words had gotten through that time.

And although she felt it inexplicable, the doctor's words were spoken and understood perfectly, as if they'd been said the same way all along, "I can't explain myself any clearer."

Initially, Rory was taken aback with confusion, but she chose to believe the doctor had suddenly chosen to speak English and ignore the fact that she'd been pleading for that from the very beginning. She swallowed her mild irritation and licked her lips before speaking, "Sorry," she cleared her throat when she realized she hardly had her voice, "I must've not been paying attention, then."

Tsunade and Sakura exchanged a glance of doubt. The claim was plausible, due to the fact that the girl had been mumbling before, and they wouldn't have understood what she'd said in any case, but something about it felt off in an inexplicable way.

They didn't have time to focus on that at the moment, though, and Tsunade decided to nod for the time being, "Perfectly understandable." She said, and then outstretched a hand towards Sakura, who immediately handed her the clipboard which had almost no information filled in.

Rory observed the exchange briefly before deciding against further casualties, and cut to asking what she wanted to know, "Excuse me," she said again, never short of her manners. The doctor and nurse's glance focused on her once again and it was then she noted the level of authority in both their eyes. For a moment, she went silent with mild surprise, then regained composure and asked, "Do either of you know where my mother may be?"

The question seemed to trouble them both, which in return, gave Rory the same effect. And for the first time, the pinkette addressed her, "That's kind of what we'd like to know."

The girl in question felt the sudden pang she'd get in her chest whenever there was a bad premonition in tow. She pushed the feeling aside, though, and shook her head to regain concentration, "You mean she's not here?"

Both women shook their heads.

"Does she know _I'm_ here, at least?"

They shook their heads again, which was enough to cause the young lady serious alarm. She sat up a little straighter, ignoring the nurse's protest, and addressed the doctor with a little more caution, "Alright," she began slowly, thinking through her words. She needed to take things one step at a time and rationalize, which was something she could do, "can I contact her then? Is there a phone I can reach?"

"Phone?" Tsunade echoed, the term clearly alien to her, "We don't have a phone, but if your mother resides in the village we can send her a notice."

"Village." Rory repeated as well, "I don't live in a village. And how can a hospital not have a phone? It's a standard need."

Sakura's eyebrow twitched as she noticed her mentor's patience slowly draining, "Obviously not, contrary wise, we'd have one."

The mild annoyance in her voice was not lost on the young lady, for which reason she inhaled, regaining composure before speaking again, "Where am I, then? Perhaps there's a village near my town which I wasn't aware of."

"You're in Konoha, which is where one of our teams found you as well." Sakura informed patiently. Somehow she could empathize with the patient's frustration. She knew she wouldn't be too keen if she suddenly woke into the wrong village, and the wrong people, "You were drowning in a lake by one of our training grounds. Luckily they found you in time and brought you to us. What we need now is to make sense of that situation, and then we will help you contact your family again."

"Hold on." Rory halted her, ignoring half the nurse's statement once she felt suddenly over-informed, "Kono-what?"

"Konoha." Sakura repeated.

Rory blinked, mentally scanning her knowledge of places surrounding her town, which was almost none. Expectantly, she came up short, but the name did sound familiar. Not something she could think of right away as a dead ringer, but as if she'd heard it before in a casual conversation, "It sounds… _familiar_ but I've never been here before, I think." She spoke slowly, careful with her words in case of a sudden memory which would tell her otherwise. It didn't come up, though, for which reason she continued, "How is it possible that I've never been here before?"

"It's very possible." The doctor replied, "We don't let just anyone through our gates."

"Gates?" Rory repeated, "What gates?"

"The entrance gates." Sakura replied pointing towards what Rory assumed was beyond the window's view, "It helps keep our village safe."

The brunette shook her head, not quite comprehending, but understanding that it would take further explanation which was already beside the point. With that thought, she put the subject aside and took a few metaphorical steps backwards, "You don't understand, I'm an artisan. We travel literally _everywhere_. It's our job. If for some reason I don't even know this place then it must mean it's pretty far from home. Aside from that fact, you said I was drowning in a lake?"

The women nodded, "It's how we found you, though we're not sure what the cause of your bruising is."

She didn't remember. As much as she played the day in her mind back and forth, the facts simply didn't add up. There was no logical explanation as to why she was beaten and drowning in a lake in the middle of nowhere on a school day, none the less. Her freshest memory consisted of the final bell ringing two minutes ahead of schedule, then, the heart rate monitor.

Then the word _accident_ crossed her mind again, which made her mind stop for a second in consideration. She had no way of knowing whether it was the case or not, but it was definitely plausible. But along with that mental suggestion came reasoning. If it had been a car accident there'd be a car worth mentioning, or debris. They'd found nothing, apparently. She assumed that if they had, the doctors wouldn't need a hand in hand guide through the cause of her bruising.

They were as confused as she was, and it was an alarming realization. Just what kind of a hospital did she have the unfortunate luck of landing in? She hadn't the slightest idea. A safe one, as their gate would suggest. A technologically inadvanced one, as their lack of telephones would indicate. A foreign one, as their earlier language proved. And those facts did not confuse Rory as much as they alarmed her. Because the story could always be explained, but apparently, she was a long way from familiarity altogether.

Foreign. It was all she could identify the entire situation with. The language, the people, the place. Everything was foreign.

"What's your name, kid?" The doctor suddenly asked, puling Rory out of her reverie.

Her glance snapped back towards honey brown eyes and she blinked, "Rory. I'm Rory Blanchard."

"Rory," the doctor repeated, almost testing the ring to it, "that's definitely new."

"I don't think I've heard it before." Sakura agreed.

That did not interest Rory in the slightest. She let out a small laugh though, remembering, "I think it's a male name. My sister picked it out."

"You have a sister?"

"And a brother." Rory added with a nod.

Tsunade felt a wave of empathy course through her before asking, "Where are you from, Rory?"

The girl in question lulled her head from one side to another, flinching every now and again. Looking to her upper right for memory, she replied, "The metro. Everybody drives through it to get somewhere."

Sakura's eyebrow quirked, "The metro? I've never heard of such a thing as a metro."

That was when the idea that the foreigner, Rory, could have very well been delusional crossed the pinkette's mind. But at the same time, it sounded preposterous. Though her claims had all been ridiculous and confusing, there as a high level of security in her voice, recognition. She was absolutely sure of what she spoke of. And she was coherent, she didn't contradict herself. Which Tsunade seemed to have noted as well, otherwise she would've left the room long ago with a simple diagnosis. Which led the medic to the standard questions: Who was that patient, where did she come from, and how did she end up in Konoha?

The brunette ran a hand through her long bang and exhaled, a high level of anxiety coursing through her veins as the silent wonder crossed her mind as well. She knew she needed to calm herself and address the matter thoughtfully, but it was a thought ignored, overshadowed by the facts of the moment. The trio just seemed to get more and more puzzled with each question asked, which sadistically could have made the girl laugh.

"Do you have any enemies?" Tsunade asked suddenly, "Anyone at the Metro who would want you hurt or gone?"

"What?" Somehow, Rory managed a chuckle, which didn't amuse the blonde doctor, "That's crazy; I hardly even have friends, let alone enemies. In any case, now a day no one's actually civilized enough to let you live if they attack you, which they usually have reason for."

Sakura's brows furrowed, "What does that mean?"

She was about to reply, when a recognizably deep voice cut her off, "I don't think those are the questions you should be addressing right now."

All heads turned towards the door to be faced with a man familiar to the three, "Neji."

There was a severe expression in his face which made everyone very aware of the fact that he did not come bearing good news. He glanced at the girl on the hospital bed, who in turn quirked her brows in question, and mild recognition. She seemed as harmless as could get, still, he was wary. And Neji wasn't about to accuse her of being the enemy, but he felt the need to address her with caution and observation.

"Lady Tsunade," he said, "may I speak to you in private, please?"

The woman nodded, slowly standing and patting invisible dust from her pants, "Of course."

Rory watched as the two made their way out of the room and shut the door with a silent click. It was then that she turned her glance towards the pink nurse, who smiled reassuringly, "It will only take a moment."

Their silhouettes could be seen through the widow door as Neji paced slowly, thinking over his words before addressing the Hokage, who impatiently urged him, "Well? On with it, Hyuuga."

Neji straightened his posture and turned to face the blonde, "I thought it might have been a mistake, for which reason I didn't mention it to Gai at the report. But after carefully studying the matter, and addressing a few acknowledged people, I realized I might not have been the one at fault."

Tsunade raised a brow, "What are you going on about?"

Neji met her glance, taking the professional stance he was well known for, and spoke carefully, "She doesn't have any chakra, Lady Tsunade." He told her, "Which, logically speaking, would mean that she's dead."

* * *

**A/N:** So I decided to take on the challenge of continuing this storyline, given the fact that I really do have a few ideas I'd like to work with. However, it seems it's going to be progressing slowly, for which reason I decided to end this chapter here. Contrary to the previous introduction thingy, this sucker is kind of long.

So a few pointers~

1. Everyone was dazed and confused in this chapter, and even though it kind of left the same effect on me, I'm assuming that's how it's supposed to go in a relatable situation.

2. I will try to better walk through most unanswered questions in the next chapter, but I have a general idea of what order I want things explained.

3. It's barely begun, but I'll probably look to edit this out, and kind of polish it a little better along the way, since it still feels a little... messy. Bear with me.

4. Any doubts or comments, feel free to leave below~

And I guess that's it /o/


End file.
